Classical discoveries thread

Metal is a lot like classical and a lot of metalheads enjoy it. The problem is that most of them go for classical music that imitates modern works and loses the beauty of the symphonic form; you know, the stuff that's trendy because it's easy for brainwashed moderns to think they appreciate classical through its modernized, boring form. Fuck Eric Satie and Charles Ives.

Nov 1, 2008 - Niels Eric Gade, Symphony No. 4. Today's discovery is this Danish composer who makes music a lot like a Romantic-realistic painting, meaning that it is full of beauty and its quirks all point in the same direction, but it has an underlying passion that must be read between the lines because Gade, like all Scandinavians, is so obsessed with politeness that he will hint your shoes are on fire rather than tell you outright. Quite beautiful, passionate; a lot like Brahms with the best of Strauss' waltzes infused in its lilting melodies and gusty rhythms.

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Septicemia

The problem is that most of them go for classical music that imitates modern works and loses the beauty of the symphonic form; you know, the stuff that's trendy because it's easy for brainwashed moderns to think they appreciate classical through its modernized, boring form. Fuck Eric Satie and Charles Ives.

What? Metalheads go for the structurally straight-forward classical music - Holst, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven. This is what makes death metal distinct from other trend-based styles of music in that it is solidly based in composition, be it for better or for worse. Even with a portion of metal being temporarily corrupted, courtesy of "alternative"-parasite types. If anything, metalheads that are AWARE of classical music do not buy into Chinese ripoffs of better music (when was the last time you heard a hessian lauding the transcendent beauty of Mendelssohn rather than Beethoven?).

The problem is that most of them go for classical music that imitates modern works and loses the beauty of the symphonic form; you know, the stuff that's trendy because it's easy for brainwashed moderns to think they appreciate classical through its modernized, boring form. Fuck Eric Satie and Charles Ives.

What? Metalheads go for the structurally straight-forward classical music - Holst, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven. This is what makes death metal distinct from other trend-based styles of music in that it is solidly based in composition, be it for better or for worse. Even with a portion of metal being temporarily corrupted, courtesy of "alternative"-parasite types. If anything, metalheads that are aware of classical music do not buy into Chinese ripoffs of better music (when was the last time you heard a hessian lauding the transcendent beauty of Mendelssohn rather than Beethoven?).

I think that he was referring more to the average metalhead, rather than associating those composers (Charles Ives etc) with Hessians.

Metal is a lot like classical and a lot of metalheads enjoy it. The problem is that most of them go for classical music that imitates modern works and loses the beauty of the symphonic form; you know, the stuff that's trendy because it's easy for brainwashed moderns to think they appreciate classical through its modernized, boring form. Fuck Eric Satie and Charles Ives.

I disagree: Whether it's neo-romantic boring movie soundtrack bullshit, or twelve-tone dissonant trash, it is my experience that metalheads have enough balls to say no to the lies of both.

Most metal heads, if they care about classical at all, drift towards the more illuminated figures in its history.I am very happy that metal is one of very few alternative musics left that is willing to call people like Steve Reich and Eric Whitacre, as well as people like Stockhausen and Elliot Carter, out on their bullshit. No metalhead, not even me, would ever pretend that our current generation of composers has surpassed the relevancy, let alone the general achievements, of every single previous era of European music.

I guess I don't see the trend you do? Most classical of choice for metalheads, especially on this board, seems not to be "modern" or "boring" at all.

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Nile577

Charles Ives' work is bound up with transcendentalism (see in particular his Universe Symphony & "Unanswered Question.") The Concord Sonata even has movements named after the American transcendentalists Emerson, Hawthorne, The Alcotts and Thoreau. I recommend these pieces and hope that in time you come to appreciate them.

I can hear it, but I would find it difficult to explain how and why. It would be good to have an accessible, ready-at-hand explanation of why metal is like classical. I'll see if I can write a few pages on it. People versed in music theory would be able to understand the explanations I've heard around here, but most people wouldn't be able to. Just recently, I realized that one guy I talk to about metal thinks I'm always talking about production and sound. He doesn't have any idea about structure and content because that's not what he thinks of when he listens to music, just sound. To him, it doesn't make sense to him to talk about music at all because he's incapable of analyzing it on any deeper level than what it sounds like and how pleasing it is. It's incredibly frustrating, and almost like talking to a 5 year old child about quantum theory - they just don't have the mind for it. So you can see that for many, understanding a DLA review is an impossibility.

Just recently, I realized that one guy I talk to about metal thinks I'm always talking about production and sound. He doesn't have any idea about structure and content because that's not what he thinks of when he listens to music, just sound.

Indeed, most people don't pay attention to the composition or the melodies when they listen to music. If melody is paid attention to, it's generally in terms of how obviously it expresses some lowest common denominator emotion that "everyone" can agree on. It doesn't matter to them if it's the same four chords they've always heard, or some incredibly obvious interval that everyone seems to use to express "happiness" and "sadness". And in terms of production, it's clear that most people confuse this with actual musical quality, otherwise lo-fi "true" 4 chord black metal would be far more easily recognized as the legitimate pop music form it is, and would be embraced by emo kids everywhere.